"I thought, as our success was growing, that this was gonna lead to a rhythm and blues thing like the Stones did in the 60s," Johnson says wistfully. They gained a reputation as the most incendiary and exciting live band in Britain, and had a No 1 hit with the live album Stupidity, but those they inspired promptly rendered them obsolete by inventing punk. In Julien Temple's masterly 2009 documentary Oil City Confidential, they're portrayed as a gang of bank robbers with guitars, dashing into town to pull off a job at one venue or another, then heading back to Essex, to their homes in the shadows of the refineries of the island they renamed Oil City. Kicking against the prog-rock trend of the time, Johnson insisted the band, based on Canvey Island, play tough R&B, mixing covers with Johnson's own songs. Johnson's legend rests largely on the six years he spent with Dr Feelgood, from 1971 until he left the band in 1977.
#Wilko johnson farewell tour full#
Then a couple of weeks in, I turned the corner and there was the full moon rising, man, and it was upside down!" It's the result of a fascination with astronomy that developed when he began wondering, ahead of a tour of New Zealand, which way the moon hung in the southern hemisphere: "I got down to New Zealand and there was no moon. 'Ooh! No 10's up late!' Me, I sneak about in the dark.") And it's there in the observatory on the flat roof, behind the battlements he shares with the other half of the semi. She knew everyone in the street and what they were up to. ("When my wife was alive, she was a very friendly person. The oddness is now benign – footage of him in Dr Feelgood in the 70s shows a deranged, intimidating stage persona, and contemporary interviews suggest he could be a bit of an arse sometimes – but it's there, in his paintings, which hang on the walls, and the closed blinds. Johnson, now 65, is one of English rock's great eccentrics, a man who radiates oddness so intensely that his recent appearances in Game of Thrones as the dumb and psychotic executioner Ser Ilyn Payne seem like typecasting.
If that sounds a bit odd, then it's entirely in keeping. Sometimes this feeling is almost ecstatic, and I can say that I haven't plunged into despair at all." And it's a bloody good feeling being alive. I'm just sitting here in my room, and I love this room, and ain't this nice just sitting here? And I realised: you are alive and you are existing in the moment. And I thought: 'I love being in my room.' Normally, I'd be sitting there thinking: 'My room is very groovy … but I'm really hung up about this.' I'd be worrying away about some rubbish. I've got my room really nice, and it feels great sitting in there with my things around me. Normally I suffer from depression, and I thought maybe this was a reaction, but then a few nights later I was sitting in my room upstairs. We came out of the hospital and I was feeling high, elated. The YouTube video below (from 56 seconds in) shows the band at their peak, on the BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test in 1975."It was a surprise," Johnson says, "but it didn't disturb me. The band's live album, Stupidity, reached number one in the UK Albums Chart in 1976. Feelgood for six years from its formation in 1971, writing all the original songs on their first four albums. His manager, Robert Hoy said: "The four UK dates represent an opportunity for Wilko to express his sincere thanks to his fans for all the support he has had over his long career." Johnson has chosen not to undergo chemotherapy for cancer of the pancreas. The farewell concerts will take place in March. Johnson's aggressive style of guitar playing was picked up and mimicked by bands including The Clash, The Stranglers and The Sex Pistols. Johnson first sprang to fame in the early 1970s as the guitarist for Dr Feelgood, an Essex 'pub rock' band whose style and attitude opened the door for punk rock and new wave music.
#Wilko johnson farewell tour series#
Wilko Johnson, the influential British rock guitarist who recently played mute executioner Ilyn Pane in the HBO series Game of Thrones, has announced details of his farewell tour, one week after going public with news that he is suffering from terminal cancer. Johnson (left) as the executioner Ilyn Pane in HBO's Game of Thrones.
0 kommentar(er)
